Greener Pastures

http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2008/11/26/9145211.aspx

you can try to describe it any number of ways…but for a small business, the 'Packaged Services' that are part of the Software Assurance Benefit just plain old ain't a benefit. As with most things Microsoft, the reality is that Small Business is, well, an afterthought. The only exception that I can think of is SBS. I will not bore the reading public with a re-iteration of the SA Benefits that come with Open Value or with Open Business L+SA. The biggest benefit is the upgrade assurance, and for most Small Businesses, a budget able $ figure is worth it… But then Microsoft, in its greatest manner possible sent out a notice to ALL Open Value and Open Business L+SA about some…well I'll show what it was…

From: Microsoft Volume Licensing Services [mailto:msvlop@microsoft.com]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 3:22 AM
To: XXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Packaged Service Enhancement Announcement{~19198381:1~}

On the surface it's seems like a pretty good deal…what they don't mention is that this customer does not actually qualify for any of these benefits…OUCH!!! As Eric points out in the referenced blog post at the top, is that…

1. How many licenses of Office, Core CAL, or Enterprise CAL does a customer need to buy to qualify for these Packaged Services?

• The chart showing how many days they receive for each level of purchase is included in the Microsoft Product List; however, the minimum level of purchase for either the Office pool or the Server pool is 200.

Please do note that he says specifically the minimum level of purchase for either the Office pool or the Server pool is 200. Now, please take a moment to read his post and follow any and all of the links you like, tell me exactly how long it takes you to find that in all the 'stuff' Microsoft has on that link, there…

Further, show me what it takes for a Small Business to qualify for say BVPS…200 licenses of Office. Well we've already determined that Small Business, via the SBS model is cut off at max 75…so HOW ON EARTH IS THIS A BENEFIT FOR SMALL BUSINESS. IT AIN'T. I think it's a great benefit, to those that can get it, but it should start with the buy in of Open Business…5. Now I understand that Microsoft is trying to extend additional benefits, especially in these trying economic times, and they are trying to get enterprises engaged with Partners, I really applaud that. But do you mean to tell me that the great Microsoft Database (SQL 2008 Enterprise Edition I presume) can't filter out those that don't actually qualify for these benefits, and don't bother them with it. Yea, it did give me an opportunity to talk to my client, but without fail, each and every one of them said…

"THANKS FOR NOTHING"

So, for those of you familiar with Fry's here in the US, they used to sell Basic PCs and what not with a hacked version of Linux. Wal-Mart may do this too, and for the most part a good hobbyist had a blast with them for a while, but after that while wore out, they'd download some pirated Windows XP from the usenet and go use it for normal PC'ing. I won't get into the pirating and whatnot, but this is not at all uncommon, and around these parts of Texas, I have walked into more than one small business, after "Joe's kid from down the street" had been into a network, only to find multiple of these things pawning around, trying to pass themselves off as Windows Desktops…but I digress.

So I here from a good friend through Twitter that HP is running another Fire Sale on their Windows Home Server line…

http://mswhs.com/2008/11/18/hp-mediasmart-server-ex470-for-31499/

And to look at it that's a great deal, but then read the reviews, and look at the maturity of Windows Home Server, and then dig further, and soon enough you will read about people buying these crapples and turning them into Linux Servers and whatnot. Some because they cannot get the RAM or processor upgraded properly without frying the system…

So now I look at this, and I think to myself, with all the power and resources behind them, HP and Microsoft, with all that market research they have available, what they came up with, for one of the best products in their quill is to try to appeal to the lowest common denominator, Price. Build it cheap, sell it cheap, cause that's what the OS is…cheap.

But wait a minute. Windows Home Server is built based on probably one of the best Products Microsoft has ever put out Small Business Server 2003 R2. Alright so they stripped out AD, and Exchange, and Companyweb, and pretty much all the goop that is SBS, but they replaced that magic goop with different goop. And the WHS goop is actually pretty kool. Image Backups of desktops. Shared/User based access to shares, files and folders…you know the common stuff: Software installers, Personal Directories, Music, Videos, Photos, etc. Plus it gives remote access through a Portal to that stuff. And if your desktop at home is XP Pro, Vista Business or Vista Ultimate, you can go all Ninja Remote Desktop on you, and let you work remotely on your Home PC (can you say GoToMyPC?). There's way more great stuff about WHS, not the least of which is media sharing to the XBOX 360 and Media Center.

So with all this great stuff, and a HUGE HOBBYIST COMMUNITY out there developing add-ons and more great goop, why is HP and, implicitly, Microsoft telling the world this ain't worth anything more than 512MB RAM and 500GB of storage (only about 400) in usable. Is your life worth more? After all, that's what they want you to put on it…all your desktop information, all your photos, home videos, movies, yes Vlad, you can store your Porn there, if you really NEED to, and music on there. Is all that great stuff only worth @$350-$400? It's pretty sad, and pretty indicative of what they (HP) thinks of this product. It's a real shame too, because if they keep putting it on crap, people are gonna think that WHS is CRAP, which it ain't. Given all that look for great stuff coming soon. It starts with WHS, and goes from there…

For those that said it couldn't be done…it can.

Then there are those that asked if it should be done…for that you'll have to answer on your own…

For those interested, I was able to do this with relative ease. I would recommend doing so at the console or through LAN connected mstsc rather than through the web service known as remote access.

If you know your way around setting up Windows SharePoint Services then setting it up on Windows Home Server is rather easy, and a great add-in for users looking to get more out of their Home Server experience.

A quick look at some of the features of WSS that could be used in a home/connected family/network.

1. Shared Calendars…I see this requested a lot, and it is missing otherwise, but this offers a family a shared location for aggregating their lives, events, and calendars…
2. Blogs…these are really great for family members to keep a journal, and share what they want, when they want and with who they want while in a more secure manner than mySpace or Facebook or any of those…
3. Wikis…we discuss this feature a with tons of small businesses but it also makes sense for the connected family. A simple repository for unstructured data, wonderful!!!
4. Contacts…again a great way to share the contact list, and sync with outlook, oh, by the way calendars will do this as well…
5. Links…hyper links for all the places people will go to after here.
6. Custom built widgets and stuff like a twitter page, personalized for each person…
7. RSS aggregation, consumption, and regurgitation, can you say yummy!!!
8. Obviously shared files and folders, but that's starting to step on WHS…
9. Custom lists like shopping lists (oh and it's mobile accessable) from basically any WAP phone…
   1. So look at that for a moment, create a shopping list that is fed by users, but could you extend that to a bar code scanner? Sure, and at a pretty low cost too.
   2. It in turn feeds the budget for the family, comparing actual vs projected…in real time…
10. Asset tracking, mileage tracking, you name it, we can probably do it…

So I am sure there is way more we can do with WHS and WSS, but to get it started it's pretty darn simple. There are some draw backs. Setting it up, YOU REALLY DO NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, because by default, you are going to HOSE the default WHS site, so be careful! As a rule, for this, I'd recommend using a custom port number for sharepoint. You'll have to make a rule in your WHS firewall, and if you want it accessable from the intertubes, you'll want to poke a hole in your NAT router/firewall as well. If you're this far though, you should already know how to do that. And you should already know the risks and concerns of opening that hole…

So where else can you go from here? Well integrating with a Phone system might be a good place to start. If you are invested in ResponsePoint, there's plenty of opportunity here. I see this as a GREAT home phone system for the connected family. Simple to use and easy to manage. I have already done some 'integration' with RP and WHS, mostly in exposing the administrator in the advanced console add-in. I even added a script to pull the call logs and place a csv in a share so I can 'examine' the haters and spammers that call the house ALL DAY LONG!!! If you are not into RP, get into it!!! Or you could use a VM image of Trixbox, the open source derivative of Asterisk. I particularly like the nerd-vittles customizations, and therefore will point you to www.nerdvittles.com this guy is GR8, with a capital GR8!!! I have tested this out and may blog about it in the future. But it is a great way to get up and running quickly on a VoIP PBX without paying an arm and a leg. He gives you all the info you need and if you are a hobbyist, then this is right up your alley. They lay it all out, I have had to figure some stuff out, but they do really well at breaking it all down for you, check it out.

So this has gone on too far beyond the SharePoint on Windows Home Server, but hopefully, you got something out of it. Oh by the way, I had downloaded the xbox feeds add-in for WHS and am planning on adding feeds from my newly created WSS site to feed the xbox feeds news about the family and what not.

Future posts may be about Live Mesh integration, this is a core component that we use, and I have found it works perfectly. It is still limited in features, but promises to be great very soon…